March 11, 2013

word

Today at work I had a debate with my immediate superior over an issue of word-usage in our workplace that I am personally emotionally invested in, and actually had to stop what I was doing and walk away. It was...tense. The person who was the next-highest up the pecking order came down on my side with both feet, and the other party eventually apologized with sincerity, but I feel like my overall point, that we work in HOSPITALITY and ought therefore to be conscious of the feelings and sensitivities of ALL of our customers, including not only those to whom said word actually applies but also those who know and love them and don't display any verbal or physical cues to tip us off to their stake in the issue, was lost among the flurry of "oh god please don't involve HR" and "here is how I have the street cred to use that word if I want to, let me tell YOU about MY sibling/cousin/hairdresser's baby and therefore if I'm using the word it's OKAY" (it's not, and no, it's NOT like that OTHER word that is ALSO offensive, but to different people for different reasons and OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE). I think I may have at least partially failed in making the point that while I disapprove of and react strongly to that word's misuse on a PERSONAL basis, it's also one that, if you INSIST on (mis)using it as part of your personal lexicon, you need to leave the fuck at home and NEVER bring to work (especially in the service industry, where business is all about making EVERYONE feel comfortable and welcome). It was pretty disappointing, but I'm glad I said something.

And when it turned out that the group who gave us the majority of the day's business was involved in special education (something I picked up on in recognizing some IEP-committee buzzwords they were using amongst themselves that I then had to explain to my co-workers for them to even know what I was gloating about), well, I like to think I wasn't ENTIRELY insufferable in alerting my co-workers to that fact, but it was probably close :)